[GR]: Self Positivity! 21st October at 7:30pm AEDT
Hello everyone!
This coming Monday we're doing a GR on self-positivity!
Since our Year 12 and uni exams may be digging into our brains at the moment, I think this is a good opportunity to practice some self-love and care (while using it as a great excuse to be on the forums ahaha).
See you all then this Monday, 21st October at 7:30pm AEDT (or 6:30pm AEST). (Yes be aware of the timing due to daylight savings!)
@Esperanza67 this is such a bomb thread, why am I only seeing it now! I wish I'd seen it earlier! Self positivy seems great, never actually heard of it before! What does it does look like? How does it differ to self care?
Full of questions today, ahh!!
What does self positivity look like?
Man, that is a difficult question! I think that there is no right or wrong answer to this question - the definition of self positivity to me is looking after yourself and always knowing there's a positive side to all of us.
How does it differ to self-care?
Self-care is all about taking care of yourself, whereas self-positivity is all about seeing the positive things about yourself - the great things that make up who your are! Both terms are eerily similar and so it can be confusing finding how to differentiate between the two!
GR is starting soon guys! Woop woop!
Just going to tag some peeps who might be interested! 😄
@amilee @CowboyBebop @Decal21 @dog_lover94 @drpenguin @happycat45 @Hozzles @Jane_Rose @katurian @lennycat2017 @lr8991 @Milkninja222 @MisoBear @mspaceK @queenP @reach804 @recharging_introvert @scared01 @skyedre @statuscaring @Tasi @tjayne19
@WheresMySquishy @Dyl @Maryhadalittlelamb @_Star_Gazer_17_ @spacejam @Sam9631 @Sunflower18 @not-an-otter @xXLexi_Lou122Xx @SomeoneNADJS @Tiny_leaf
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Hey everyone! Welcome to our GR on Self-positivity! 😄
Here's the first question to kick us off!
What are some benefits of self positivity?
What are some benefits of self positivity?
Some benefits of self positivity is the fact that, being self positive. Can help break negative thought patterns, from personal experience. Once I started showing myself some self positivity and compassion. I was able to deal with my issues in a more healthy manner. Prior to this, it was really hard to deal with my issues, because I've gotten so used to treating myself with negative thoughts. It was until, multiple clinicians told me. That I get lot's of negative thoughts, and that I should change the way I think by thinking more positively and compassionately. That I started to get better
@ApplesRoses I think self positivity can help break negative though patterns too. I'm glad that you could think of yourself more positively and it helped you. 
[R] Just got the email notification that this had started. I'm going to do these two questions, and maybe someone else in our system could answer some other ones. We'll see.
What are some benefits of self positivity?
Some that I can think of are being able to be in a better mood overall, as well as reducing your levels of stress and making you feel more confident about yourself. Self-positivity may also help you accept yourself for who you are and reduce negative self-talk.
What have you learned by being self-positive?
I'll be honest, I'm not always that self-positive, but with help from other members of my system, I've learned how to be more accepting of who I am and it's helped me feel a bit better even though we're going through a pretty tough time. It took me a few months to get my head around being a trans girl and non-binary, but self-positivity has helped get me through some of my low points and it's helped me deal with other outside pressures as well.
@SomeoneNADJS, it's great to have a support system that is there for you. It can be pretty tough to get through tough times by yourself, so sometimes in order to achieve self positivity. You must reach out to others for positivity, and they'll help get you to a better mindset.
Hey @SomeoneNADJS [R] thanks for joing us! 😄 That sounds like a really big thing to accept and wrap your head around, and i'm so glad that youve felt supported and that self-positivity has helped with that journey
@WheresMySquishy when you mentioned how self-positivity is a learning curve that really struck me! Practising positivity really is a skill that we need to practice, in order to be able to do so when the bad thoughts start cropping up.
Like exercising a muscle 😛 😉
Time for the next question!
I think we've started to touch on it a bit already 😄
Do you find it easy to be self-positive? If not, why?
Just got home to jump into this activity!
What are some benefits of self positivity?
Self positivity can really help you avoid those nasty, negative feelings when you're not in the best mood, and can even lift you out of that state. Positivity can also be infectious and lift up the mood of others around you!
What have you learned by being self-positive?
I've learned that it's okay to experience negative things, because many things have silver linings. Being self-positive can help me better understand negative events in my life and accept that they happened, rather than define myself by them.
Do you find it easy to be self-positive? If not, why?
For me I don't think it's that easy to be self-positive. When something negative happens I tend to dwell on it for a long time, and it'll distract me from other — possibly more positive — things that happen in my daily life. I've read that it's called negativity bias, where people focus on the negative sides of events more strongly than positive ones. Because of this, I kind of just forget to be more self-positive, but I'm definitely trying to have more self-positivity when bad things happen.
@drpenguin, I didn't know that focusing on the negative instead of the positive had a name! It feels a lot better to know that that's a common thing. The less of a taboo it is for me. The more comfortable I am with it.
@drpenguin I can totally relate to dwelling too much on things. I feel like I spend too much time thinking about things that I can't change. I've been working on trying to focus on other things and not worry as much.
@WheresMySquishy, I really agree with what you're saying about dwelling on what you couldn't change. This isn't in the context of self-positivity. But negative thought dwelling is a thing we talked about, here's what my clinician said to me about negative thought dwelling about things you've done that you know you can't change now. 'if you try to work towards the better and try to improve and learn from your mistakes is the best that you can do'. This is the basic gist of it. But knowing this has helped me go through some tough times.
It sounds like everyone has pretty similar thoughts on this one! That it's harder to be compassionate towards yourself than others. I think being aware of this and self-reflective helps with developing those self-positive skills
One thing I've noticed about myself, is that I'm really positive towards others. But then, when it comes to being positive towards myself, I do the bare minimum. Which is really ironic in my opinion. Like I think about it sometimes, and I find it so weird that I'm really positive to others, but I can't treat myself the same way. 😞 But I'm working towards self-positivity.
I think that's a really common issue @ApplesRoses. I think I'm more of a person who likes to support other people rather than myself. It's extended to my relationships. People have said that I make other people happy, but they don't make me happy. Sometimes, I have bent over backwards to help other people, but they haven't offered me the same level of support. I guess it can show you who your true friends are.
Time for the next question!
How can we be more positive towards ourselves?
